by Erica Johns | Mar 30, 2018 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, Reviews, Spring Fling Giveaways
One of the things I’ve loved about being a part of a homeschool support group is that my kids have had opportunities to take part in regular school experiences like competitive sports teams, proms, groups classes, yearbooks, clubs, and graduations. Last year our third child, Jacob, graduated, and it was our first experience with a homeschool graduation ceremony. I was so impressed at how lovely and meaningful it was! All of the graduating seniors were decked out in cap, gown, and tassels, and received diplomas, and I loved that it was in no way a second-rate experience for them!
With three remaining high schoolers to graduate from our homeschool, I was delighted when Homeschool Diploma wanted to send me some of their products to review! I noticed during our senior year, many parents in our group did not know where or how to find graduation supplies for their homeschooled senior, and I ended up kind of cobbling together items helter-skelter, so I know this is a common need. Being able to see the large assortment of options, and experience the quality of the products available at Homeschool Diploma has been impressive, and I am so excited to share about this with you!
Homeschool Diploma offers all the supplies and products you need for your seniors, from the actual diplomas and diploma covers, to caps and gowns, announcements and Thank You cards, gifts, and even class rings! If you’ll have a graduate within the next four years, you will definitely want to get in on this.
The first item I got to check out was a beautiful customized diploma. Since I don’t have a graduating senior this year, I made one up for a friend of ours, and it really turned out lovely. You can choose from really nice standard, simple diplomas for as little as $29.99, or choose from many different options to create a more personalized keepsake that reflects your homeschool and student.
The one we got has the graduate’s name and school name on the front cover, a beautiful engraved seal, a Bible verse, and a diploma cover tassel.
It’s wonderful quality and I love how it offers parents the opportunity to convey their joy and accomplishment in graduating their child in ways that reflect their own style and personality.
In addition to the diploma, we also opted to get an extra, archive copy of the diploma. This is great so that your graduate can take their actual diploma with them, but mom and dad can keep a spare copy for their records in case it’s ever needed. It’s high-quality and enclosed in a clear, archive envelope to protect it.
We were also able to get a cap, gown, and tassel set, which is a must-have for any graduation ceremony. Homeschool Diploma offers two fabric types (matte or shiny) and a wide variety of colors. Gowns are sized by height, so it’s quick and easy to choose one that’s right for you. Plus sizes are also available. I was really pleased to see that the quality of the gown is quite nice. The fabric has a soft, comfortable feel and a nice weight and drape, and the zipper works smoothly and feels like it is good quality. The cap is also well-made and sturdy.
I especially liked the charm on the tassel, which is a good weight and definitely feels like a quality keepsake, and not some cheaply made trinket. Certainly you could save and reuse these caps and gowns for future graduates in your family.
The final item I was able to check out was the personalized notecards. We opted for a navy blue card with Matthew’s name in gold on the front. The paper used for these notecards is a nice weight and quality. These cards are perfect for post-graduation thank you notes, as well as an ongoing stash of personalized stationery as your student goes on to further education, job interviews, and so on. Since the cards are completely navy blue, you will want to get a white gel roll pen to use with them, and thoughtfully, Homeschool Diploma offers one for a nominal fee.
All-in-all, my impression of everything that I got to experience from Homeschool Diploma was care and quality. Each item is something I would be so pleased to use with my own graduates, knowing that every item is well-made and high-quality and reflective of our excitement at having reached this milestone with our child!
by Erica Johns | Mar 13, 2018 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, Language Arts, Notebooking, Reviews, Spring Fling Giveaways
Any Christian homeschoolers that spend time on social media have surely heard of The Good and the Beautiful by now. This relative newcomer to the homeschool curriculum scene has been quickly accepted as a favorite by many, and is known for their integration of fine arts into their materials, which I know is a special interest for Enrichment Studies readers, so I’m always eager to check out their materials and see what might be of interest to my peeps. When The Good and the Beautiful asked me to review their Creative Writing Notebook and their Nature Notebook, it was an easy yes from me! They have generously sponsored this review.
Creative Writing Notebook
The beautiful Creative Writing notebook does a terrific job of leading children through various aspects of creative writing in a way that is engaging and interesting. Designed for students in grades 4-12, my own high schoolers have been using this on all the days when I didn’t have something else planned for their writing. Even without my involvement, my students can easily move forward onto the next writing activity and they have enjoyed it.
This 89-page spiral notebook includes five sections:
- Descriptive Writing Practice
- Writing Exercises
- Story Starters
- Poetry
- Full Stories
I like how simply and effectively the student is guided on how to develop and improve their writing. The subtlety of it makes it feel less like school work, and more like a guided writing journal, which I think is wonderful for so many kids. I have reluctant writers and dyslexic kids, so this is an area we have struggled in. I’m happy to say that with the Creative Writing Notebook, I’ve seen each of my remaining high schoolers improve in their writing skills AND enjoy it! Pretty awesome!
Enrichment Studies families and others that value the integration of the arts into other subjects will appreciate that writing poetry and the process to get you there is included in this book. There are also several works of art included in this book that are used as jumping off points for observation, description, writing poems, and other aspects of writing development.
This is one of my favorite things that we’ve been using this school year, and I feel you really can’t go wrong with it for any child that is ready and able to do some writing. The fact that it’s presented so simply and in a non-intimidating way is a plus, and it doesn’t run on a lot of Mom Power, which I know we can all appreciate. It’s very affordable, at just $14.99, and will work with all learning styles.
One final note: The Good and the Beautiful is a non-denominational Christian program, but I found that the Creative Writing Notebook does not add in religious or spiritual messages. With the possible exception of the first page, it stays focused on writing skills alone, which makes this a great option for all families, including those that prefer to share spiritual beliefs with their children on their own, rather than with educational materials. As always, The Good and the Beautiful materials are wholesome with no objectionable or inappropriate content. It is well-done and stays on topic in an appropriate and professional way.
Nature Notebook
Nature Study is a popular buzzword in homeschool communities, and Charlotte Mason circles in particular. Whether you are already spending time in nature study, or if (like me) you kind of don’t understand where to start or what to do, you will love the Nature Notebook from The Good and the Beautiful.
This 117-page spiral bound nature notebook makes it fun and easy to get into nature study! Sections are divided by the four seasons (plus one Any Time section) and there are clear activities suggested for you to do, such as leaf collection or drawing, scavenger hunts done on a nature walk, description prompts (seamlessly pulling writing skills into the process), drawing and observation prompts, tie-ins with poetry and illustration, collection ideas (Seeds, rocks, flowers, leaves, etc.), and much more.
True Confession: I have always loved the idea of getting the kids out in nature, but honestly never understood what purposeful thing we were supposed to “do” aside from just take a walk and see things that we might talk about, etc. Having these suggested activities is a terrific way to get started and get over that hump of not really knowing what to do. The fact that you can jump around from one activity prompt to another is handy for families since it flexes with your needs and wishes. You can easily let the children pick what they’d like to do for your outing, and there is plenty that the kids can do as self-led nature study right in your own back yard! I also appreciate that there are plenty of things in the Nature Notebook that you can do indoors. Whether you have weather or personal needs that keep you inside, you can definitely keep going and let nature study be a part of your everyday school life.
Any age child can use this notebook, and you could use a fresh Nature Notebook year after year, since the observations you make and collections you form, etc. will be fresh and different. I also appreciate that you don’t have to finish this in one year. If you aren’t avid nature walkers, if you’re having a baby and not able to get out much this year, or simply had nature study fall of your radar for awhile, each child can still enjoy and treasure their Nature Notebook over several years and get so much out of it!
One aspect of the Nature Notebook that I found myself questioning was that there are some nature “scrapbooking” type activities suggestions that I am not sure how they would practically work. For example, gluing leaves onto pages seem like they would make it hard for the book to close, the leaves would eventually dry and get crushed and make a mess, etc. The bark rubbing activity seems like it has great potential to get the book pages ripped and would be awkward to accomplish with the page still attached to the book. I love the inclusion of these activities, but I think I would copy those particular pages on my home scanner/printer and provide a fresh stand-alone page for the kids to do those activities on instead. A 9×12 plastic storage box might be a perfect spot to store your Nature Notebook, plus all collections, nature treasures, and three-dimensional projects where they are more protected and can be enjoyed again and again.
Like the Creative Writing Notebook, the Nature Notebook doesn’t directly include any religious elements, so this is an item that will work for all families and all ages. The Nature Notebook sells for just $12.
Get The Good and the Beautiful annual reading list for FREE!
Each year The Good and the Beautiful publishes a popular reading list, and subscribers to their newsletter can get it for FREE! They also sometimes give away freebies, so this is a great way to make sure you don’t miss a thing. You can subscribe on their home page by clicking here.Â
You can read my other review of The Good and the Beautiful here:
by Erica Johns | Mar 6, 2018 | Art, Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, Spring Fling Giveaways
It seems like kids always love arts and crafts, and the new trend of stone painting is super popular and so fun for all ages! What’s more–you can really elevate the crafty side of this activity and use it across all areas of learning! I was incredibly inspired when I got to read through the book Stone Painting for Kids and saw so many possibilities for homeschoolers to mesh the creative with the academic! Read on for lots of creative learning inspiration, sponsored by Dover Publications.
Included in the book are ideas like:
- Geometric shapes (teach your young kids colors and shapes!)
- Numbers (early learning and math opportunities)
- Letters (early reading, spelling, and writing opportunities)
- Hearts
- Faces (including fun cartoon styles that kids will love learning)
- Multi-pebble flowers
- Mushrooms (SO cute!)
- Dominoes (yes! You can make your own dominoes game!)
- Shell painting (fish, butterflies, and more!)
- Chess sets (make your own set and then learn to play!)
- Multi-pebble rabbits and other animals and people
- Words (make sentences, poetry, verses, inspiration pieces, and more!)
- Flowers (combine with your nature studies!)
- Houses and Vehicles (you can make a whole town scene and create vehicles to cruise around!)
- Memory Match game! (perfect for your young kids)
- Sky scenes (including the solar system!)
- Animals of all sorts
- Tic-Tac-Toe game
- Chalkboard paint stones
- Washi taped stones
- Math and counting game ideas
- Storytelling activities
- Spelling games
- Scenes and themes you can make
- and more!
The tons of photos of painted stones and the process to create them are wonderful, and really help you understand the steps you’ll need to take to make something similar yourself. I really like it that stone painting can be as simple as your preschooler would need it to be, but also complex enough to challenge and excite high schoolers and adults.
I spent a few enjoyable hours painting stones with the help of this book, and was delighted to see that even someone like me, that doesn’t have great original ideas for thinking something up, could replicate some of these adorable concepts and end up with a fun little treasure to enjoy!
My favorite items that I successfully made were a sleeping fox, a cute birdie, a ladybug, and a pink and purple A to give to my little granddaughter whose name starts with A.
The other thing I super loved about this book is all of the inspiration to enjoy the creative side of this process, but then use the creations in the learning process in your home. Imagine how fun it would be for your kids to paint stones with letters and numbers, and later use those to learn sounds and math! You could work together with your younger children to paint simple stones with just one color per stone, and end up with a wonderful set where you could practice sequencing! For older kids, you could make a solar system set of painted stones, or write out one word per stone from a piece of poetry or Bible verse that you’re memorizing, and enjoy putting them into the right order or creating displays. History lessons can be enhanced by painting stones with homes from different cultures and eras. Nature study can be enjoyed on a rainy or too-cold day by painting stones in ways that remind you of things you’ve seen in your nature walks! Truly, the possibilities are endless, and this book is a wonderful resource for inspiring you and helping you get started.
The author, F. Sehnaz Bac, is a stone paint artist who sells her creations on Etsy, and in this book she takes us by the hand and provides all of the basic advice on how to get started with stone painting, such as choosing stones and preparing them, what materials you can use to paint and decorate them, technique tips, and more. I appreciated that the information in the book was straightforward and to-the-point, and that the step-by-step instructions were helpful without being tedious.
I was pleased to find that art supplies I already had on hand worked great for my stone painting project! The only thing I purchased for this project was a container of craft stones from Walmart for under $5. (They had bags of sea shells available, too!) Other than that, I used the acrylic paints and the paint brushes that I shared about in this post, plus my collection of sharpie markers and a white sharpie paint marker. Easy peasy!
You can connect with Dover Publications at their website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Watch my Facebook Live Show & Tell video here:
by Erica Johns | Dec 3, 2017 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, History, Inventors, Scientists, Spring Fling Giveaways
History is a tricky thing. On the one hand, we’ve got the well-known, “front burner” historical facts and figures that most of us learn growing up. But then there’s all the less-well-known aspects of history that are just as true, just as valuable, yet often hidden from most people as they learn about all the things that brought us to the place we are today.
When I started Enrichment Studies many years ago, right away I noticed the lack of women and people of color in the arts, and that put me on a path of questioning and discovery. Were there any women or non-white people creating music and art through the ages? I learned that the answer was yes! But why don’t we hear more about them? Why haven’t their contributions earned a spot in the history books? If we only look at the surface, it would be easy to think that so many things have come to us solely through the talents and innovations of white men. Indeed, due to the social structures and conquests of the past, white men have often been in the best position to create and innovate, but they are not the only ones that have. Home educators and involved, mindful parents can reclaim the fullness of history for ourselves and our children by digging deeper and learning more than just the surface level with helpful resources like the ones Tamara Shiloh has created in her Just Imagine….What If There Were No Black People In the World book series. Affiliate links are used in this post.
This book caught my attention one day, because the topic matches two we focus on at Enrichment Studies: Inventors and Scientists.  I also liked it because this fits in with my desire to help bring about a broader awareness of our diverse history to the homeschool community. I have had the privilege of speaking to Mrs. Shiloh on the phone a few times, and was so excited when she agreed to have me review these books for you. She is also generously sponsoring a giveaway, so be sure to enter at the bottom of this post!
In this sweet story, a young boy named Jaxon is taken on a magical adventure, thanks to his grandmother’s necklace and his curious mind. When he asks himself one day, “What if there were no Black people in the world?” he is taken on a journey of discovery about how his everyday life would be impacted without the many inventions and scientific advancements that were created by the men and women of color that came before him. As I kept learning about these remarkable people, I was filled with gratitude for being able to learn about them, and also filled with a desire to make sure other families get to learn about this too. This isn’t just a book for Black families, although certainly people of color will want to add this delightful book to their collection. But this is a book for every family that truly values history and wants their children to grow up with a broader awareness of our collective human story, and wants to be purposeful in fostering a curious mindset and appreciation for the diversity that is woven into our everyday lives. In the book, one of the inventors says to Jaxon, “We’re your history, and history never goes away.” We have an opportunity to make sure the history and accomplishments of all people is not swept aside and hidden from our awareness, if we are willing to. Change starts at home, and every family has the power to foster greater awareness, compassion, and appreciation for our fellow humans. Â
In addition to the main storybook, there are three wonderful companion books in the series, so far. Jaxon’s Journal reinforces the information from the main book, while also inspiring kids to create their own journals about things they have learned. Jaxon’s Black History Coloring Book includes the many inventions and scientific advancements from the main book, plus many more. It’s a perfect addition to the book, and provides an activity for younger siblings and students who love to get out their crayons and colored pencils! Jaxon’s Black History Activity Book includes word scrambles, crossword puzzles, word puzzles and games, reading and writing activities about the inventors and scientists, and more. All together this set will provide a lot of fun, historical richness, and reinforcement for your children. It is perfect for a unit study for homeschoolers, or a starting point for research projects. Due to the nice range of materials included in this bundle, I think children from K-high school could certainly appreciate the content, with the elementary and middle school ages probably being most ideal. These books are available at TamaraShiloh.com as well as through Amazon Prime.
Author Tamara Shiloh is on a mission to educate about Black History year-round, and has many other books in this series coming soon! You can look forward to sharing with your children about Black women that were instrumental in science and inventions, Black cowboys, Black people involved in aviation and astronomy at NASA and beyond, and more.
Â
by Erica Johns | Oct 17, 2017 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms
Field trips can be one of the most exciting and memorable learning events for our children, but there’s a limit to how many places we can go. Between the obvious geographical challenges, there are also financial considerations, logistical issues, and your time and energy!
Streamable Learning is a site that offers an awesome solution to this for homeschool families! They provide live, interactive streaming educational events that you and your children can attend and participate in right from the comfort of your own home. Their modern, easy-to-use platform makes it simple to see what events are coming up, and to schedule your family to join in the fun. Since these are LIVE events, you and your kiddos get to be a part of the learning in real time, including getting to ask questions and learn from what other participants had to say.
Many of the programs offer pre and post-event materials, so you can really get the most of out preparing for the event and taking advantage of learning opportunities that came up from being a part of the event. Most events include multiple time slots, so you can easily find a time that will work with your schedule. Recordings for most programs are available, too, so if for some reason you end up not being able to attend live, you can still enjoy the opportunity when it’s convenient for you.
Topics included at Streamable Learning include science, technology, engineering, math, culture, reading, literature, health and wellness, art, history, careers, essential skills, and more!
There are events geared toward all levels K-12, so there is plenty for all of your children. I am very excited to start using Streamable Learning with my high school boys. Here are the events for October and November that I scheduled us for. Look at the variety!
- The Team it Takes to Build a Video Game:Â What teen boys can’t appreciate this?
- An event discussing the themes in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (we are going on a road trip now, so we’ll listen to this book on our way)
- Charleston Jazz presenting a Live Jazz for Kids and a History of Jazz event (which are both geared toward grades 3-6, but I’m thinking jazz is great for everybody, so we will attend even though my guys are older)
- A program about volunteering to help Sea Turtles that looks really cool
- A presentation on Women’s Suffrage from the National Women’s History Museum
When I think about even the free or inexpensive field trips I’ve done with my children over the years, by the time I’ve put gas in the van and bought snacks or lunch (or both), it typically would cost us $40+, plus the loss of an entire school day. And if I had to buy tickets to an event, well….those are an investment, to be sure! (and well worth it, but not always easy on the family budget)  I just love that Streamable Learning makes it possible to have so many cool educational experiences for all ages in such a convenient way, at a price that is so affordable. Here’s a link to go check them out.Â
You can also connect with Streamable Learning on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
by Erica Johns | Aug 24, 2017 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms
Leonardo da Vinci is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and inspiring men in history. Â Not only was he a great Renaissance artist, but was also a great thinker and inventor, considering ideas that were far ahead of his time. Â The range of talents and skills he shared with the world offer an inspiring example for your own children!
Â
I’m excited to share with you about this book series available at Amazon (aff), The Life and Travels of da Vinci from Creative Learning Connection. Â This five book series tells about many historical details of Leonardo’s life, including his art, in a fun, engaging manner. Â The books are relatively short, so you can read them to your children, or let them enjoy reading them on their own!
 Â
Â
Whether you are studying the Renaissance this year, or just love to provide inspiring and interesting educational materials for your children, you will want to check these books out!
